Okeechobee Music Festival 2020: Tickets on sale Friday

After a frustrating one-year hiatus, the 2020 Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival is returning to Sunshine Grove in Okeechobee March 5-8, with tickets set to go on sale 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 23.

Taking place in the woods about 10 miles north of the lake that shares its name, Okeechobee is a camping festival, with accommodations ranging from a 10-by-10-foot patch of grass on which to pitch a tent to luxury RV hookups.

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The first wave of four-day passes on sale Friday at OkeechobeeFest.com will range from $249 to $10,000 for a VIP RV Glamping package for five. There are layaway ticket plans and a variety of add-ons that can be purchased as well.

The announcement of performers is still a few months away, but since the festival debuted in 2016 it has not disappointed, with wildly diverse lineups unconcerned about musical boundaries, age demographics and the whims of popular music.

Locals also have found a home in Okeechobee, including the Jacuzzi Boys, Spam Allstars, Magic City Hippies, Ski Mask the Slump God and Viniloversus.

As impressive as the music has been, the pastoral setting and the contagious good will it inspires also have been signatures of the festival. Anyone who has been to such better-known camping festivals as Bonnaroo and Coachella will tell you the environment at Okeechobee — both physical and social — is special.

Key to the joyous zen of the event is the site itself, on 600 acres of what had been planned as a residential development. Instead of hoofing through muddy cow pastures, visitors can walk along six miles of narrow, paved roads that wind through stands of shady oaks and past small lakes.

In the middle of grassy fields, where homes were blueprinted, you’ll find stages for superstars, and within darkened chambers formed under old-growth trees, DJs invent sounds into the wee hours. If it is possible to be exhilarated and relaxed at the same time, Okeechobee is the place to feel it.

Founded by Miami-based Soundslinger LLC, the Okeechobee Music Festival drew more than 100,000 people from across the country to the site in its first three years. The festival was put on hiatus in 2019 without explanation.

The 2020 festival will be co-produced by Soundslinger and Insomniac, the event-promotion firm that produces Electric Daisy Carnival in Orlando and other cities.

Jim Whisenand, a member of the Soundslinger board of directors, told the Lake Okeechobee News that the lineup of performers for the 2020 Okeechobee Music Festival will be announced in November.